Borders

Borders are a fundamental problem of contemporary life: there is a veritable boom in the building of walls and the fortification of borders around the world. Borders have never been static lines, but are mobile, disputed and invisible; they encompass the physical to the intellectual and cultural but mark the differences between our humanity and all that would seem to deny it or contradict it or aim to replace it. The project considers on the one hand the materiality of marking margins and borders with objects, sculptures, or by carving nature, and on the other hand the political and cognitive implications of the representation of borders on maps and paper, as well as recent bordering techniques which have broken away from the map. It also considers the historical and contemporary presence of visible and invisible borders within the context of cities, with areas or buildings inhabited by minorities or merchant nations, such as today's quarters inhabited by foreign-born communities. In this context the project will observe the internal diversities against the perception of homogeneity. The project also explores the multiple ways, in the past and in the present, of re-creating home abroad, from the means of single objects to ongoing experiments in multicultural housing.